PINEVILLE, Mo. — Businesses in McDonald County should expect an influx of two-dollar bills come this holiday season.

“If everybody does just a small thing, great things can happen,” said John Newby, President/CEO McDonald County Chamber.

That’s the hope for McDonald County…

As officials with the McDonald County Chamber of Commerce are preparing to launch their county-wide “Two-Dollar Challenge”.

“Challenge each resident to take $100, which they would normally spend in November and December in the Holiday Season, go to the bank, cash them in for $2 bills, and then when they go shopping locally for gifts or whatever, it kinda shows the local businesses the number of people who are supporting them,” said Newby.

With the closure of the “Tyson Chicken Processing Plant” in Noel this past Friday – and the holiday season quickly approaching – Chamber officials are partnering with every bank in the county – issuing a call to action, to shop local.

“There’s no escaping the fact that the Noel Plant closing is going to cause some grief over the next year or so when you lose 1000-1500 jobs within the county, that’s a big chunk. So, anything we can all do to help, even if it’s just in a small way of spending $2 bills, to keep money local,” said Newby.

And Newby says his goal for the challenge is to turn some two-dollar bills – into millions for the county.

“If you have 23,000 people in the county, and they all spend $100, that’s $2.3 million that is now circulating through the county, over and over again. How many jobs does that save? How many roads does that pave?” said Newby.

Representatives from “First Community Bank” tell us they’ve special ordered additional two-dollar bills in preparation for the challenge – and hope to have to order even more.

“They’re not commonly exchanged in the community, they are a special bill so you can really tell what’s going on, it’s not something a customer is gonna bring in very often. We don’t have that on-hand all the time, so we will have to order some from the Fed and get it here so we can have it on time,” said Meichelle Ray, First Community Bank-Jane Community Lender.

The challenge starts November 1st – and runs through the end of the year.